Tag Archives: chris parkes

The masterfully written play, centered around the character Vladimir and Estragon, as they await the arrival of ‘Godot’.

Unlike most plays, Waiting For Godot is uneventful, with even the characters telling usat one point that‘Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!’ with the play relying only on the razor sharp and at times witty dialogue to convey emotion and feeling, and at times pathos underlined with wit. The only events of the play are that of passerby’s on the road our lead characters wait upon.

With some lack of punctuation in some of the character monologues, leave us as tired as the characters in the play must be.

Many critics allure the character of ‘Godot’ as that of ‘God’ and that the two characters are awaiting God’s arrival. Though you’ll have to read and decide for yourself.. Overall an interesting piece of work, perhaps best portrayed on a stage with credible actors, such as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, who have occupied the roles a number of times on the theatre stage.

This weeks review is of Norwegian Wood, a text by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The book was published in

I found the book extremely interesting, having been the first book I’ve read that has been translated from Japanese into English. I found the book to be an extremely thought provoking text through it’s themes of youth, sex, emotional instability and suicide, set against the backdrop of political protest in 1960s Tokyo.

The book follows Toru Watanabe, as he arrives in Germany, and hears the titular Beatles song of the book, and revisits his memories of his teenage and university years and both the friendships and the relationships that have formed his life, such as his friend Kizuki and his girlfriend Naoko, which is the films first plot point, igniting after Kizuki’s suicide and Watanabe’s subsequent relationships with the now unstable Naoko and the outgoing, exciting Midori. The book takes us through various parts of Japan, places both familiar and enigmatic.

Having not had any experience in reading any Japanese texts before, I found the culture to be fascinating, even more so after a viewing of Lost In Translation, which had given me a picture of what Tokyo was like. I quickly found this image to change having read Norwegian Wood. The evoking language make the text an uneasy read at times, but at other times endearing and honest and true.

This Italian foreign language film I found to be extremely well written and performed, mostly by auteur Roberto Benigni; who directed, wrote and starred in the picture.

I found the film perfectly mixes both the highs of witty, smartly written comedy which occupies the first half of the film, following a Jewish waiter, Guido, as he attempts to woo the girl of his dreams, Dora, through the means of a series of coincidences matching with riddles he’s set before hand, forcing the two to cross paths a number of times.

The second half of the film follows the now married Jewish/Italian family, now with a young son named Joshua, and living in late 30s/early 40s Italy, where the Nazi’s have slowly started to invade and forcing Jews to mark their homes and places of work. Soon, on Joshua’s birthday, the family are siezed and sent to a Concentration Camp.

The second half of the film shifts into a sombre and heart aching moments throughout in which a Father tries his best to hide the atrocities of a Nazi concentration camp from his young impressionable son, as Guido pretends they are simply playing a game.

The film does extremely well and luring the audience in with a soft lighthearted first half of the film, making you fall in love with the very likeable and interesting characters, and slowly the bubble begins to burst. The Nazi’s enter the frame as the film wares on, and the second half, now having the audience emotionally invested in the characters, leaves you gripped to the film for the remainder of the film and for some time afterwards.

The film was beautifully shot and brilliantly written from start to finish, and I would highly recommend to anyone. Having been a fan of foreign films from France, Japan and Hong Kong, this was my first Italian foreign film I’ve watched and I thoroughly believe it deserved it’s Academy Awards nominations and subsequent wins, and rightfully deserves to be a part of the acclaimed iMDB Top 250 films of all time list.

La Haine, which translates from French as ‘Hate’, shows the gritty underground of Paris, in the midst of riots against the police, who have brutalised a friend of three rebelling and frustrated youths; Vinz, Said, and Hubert, who spend their days smoking dope, petty thieving from stores, robbing cars, amidst of low key run in’s with the police, or as they commonly refer to them as ‘pigs’.

In the French world of cinema the world are mostly familiar with, the usual ‘la belle dame’ and the handsome chain smoking rugged detective or the bad guy you end up rooting for who drinks only fine wines and wears even finer suits, as seen in ‘Breathless’, or whether it be the delightful beauty of Amelie and it’s star Audrey Tatou, La Haine scratches beneath the surface, and is much much more.

When we as an audience consider Paris, we visualize iconic land marks and places such the Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe, the River Seine, the Louve and so forth, we have this image of beauty, but La Haine scratches beneath that world, which is presented as a curtain to mask the real Paris, with the film showing just how flawed and just how ugly Paris can be for the real Parisians and not just loved up weekend tourists dressed in their ironic berets and striped tops with a bottle of red wine in one hand and a baguette under the other.

Stylised in black and white, with elements of American cinema and homages to the infamous Taxi Driver mirror scene and nods to Scarface quotes, the film is littered with references and appearances of American hip hop music, usually being popular amongst the rebellious youth, and reflects on them as they can relate with themes of Police brutality, gang violence, weapons, rioting and racism and the film is really an eye opener.

The film follows the three friends through a series of mis-adventures and comings across with a number of strange and interesting characters, some friendly, some psychopaths. La Haine is a classic, playing against the usual popular conventions of French cinema and a stand out performance from Vincent Cassell as Vinz is truly incredible, who then went on to join the Hollywood elite in Ocean’s Twelve & Thirteen and Black Swan.

Lost In Translation is a 2003 romantic drama starring Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson and was directed and written by Sofia Coppola, the daughter of acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola who directed The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now.

A big shot over the hill middle aged movie star Bob Harris (Murray) with a sense of emptiness, and a neglected newly-wed Charlotte (Johansson) meet as strangers visiting Tokyo, Japan with nothing in common other than loneliness and insomnia, and form an unlikely bond.

Bob finds himself growing further and further estranged from his wife whose back home in America with their children and Charlotte beginning to find herself increasingly ignored by her photographer husband, unsure if the man she has married is the same man she fell in love with.

Their lives entwine as they find themselves totally lost in a foreign land dealing with their regrets, worries, insomnia and questioning the meaning of their lives and the choices they have made. One scene in particular when Bob and Charlotte lie on a bed with the recurring question ‘does it get easier?’

The film is classed as a Romantic Comedy, yet there is comedy without any gags or witty one liner’s and is romantic with there being very little romance. The film, dialogue and characters are very honest, with their true feelings laid bare and true on screen and relate able real life issues, with incredible performances from Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson which engages the audience.

The film’s score is also perfect, with a sense of vast tones to soundtrack the landscape shots of the neon lights of Tokyo, a city that doesn’t seem to sleep, and the outstanding choice of Jesus And The Mary Chain’s distortion laden “Just Like Honey” closing the film elegantly as viewers, who click and identify with the film, will be holding back tears or at least a lump in the throat.

Another highlight of the film is the stunning Tokyo landscape visuals. The film takes us to many locations, vastly different at times, whether it’s a monk’s temple, the hotel rooms, a bar or watching Japanese teen’s playing away on arcade machines. The film isn’t meant to entertain, but rather be an eye-opener and an experience that everyone should have. It’s no surprise the film was nominated for four academy awards, and Coppola taking home the Oscar for best original screenplay.

If you want CGI heavy Blockbuster films or laugh out loud comedy, this isn’t for you, but if you want to see the world a little differently, this is the film for you.